....until the next time we really, really need you to bail us out of a jam.

Hey, the US has tried to play isolationist a few times, it seems to be Europe that keeps begging us back out of retirement. Just sayin'.

As an example, I'm assuming that Europe absolutely will not be seeking any sort of economic assistance from the US as part of the sovereign debt problems that seem to be facing 2/3 of that continent. And I'm also certain that Japan, SK, and Taiwan would be A-OK with us removing any and all support that has helped stabilize that region. Admittedly we've fucked up the whole middle east thing, but it was sort of our turn since everybody else has over the last couple thousand years.

As an American, we're used to the "Go away until we need your resources to solve our problems, at which we will act like ungrateful bastards about it" thing. Keep it up.

Of course, if only a handful did it, the lawyer goons would stamp you out mercilessly and put you in something as close to debtors prison as currently legally possible.

But you could also have an "I am Spartacus" moment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8h_v_our_Q

Anyone remember this 5 years ago?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AACS_encryption_key_controversy

The controversy was further escalated in early May 2007, when aggregate news site Digg received a DMCA cease and desist notice and then removed numerous articles on the matter and banned users reposting the information.[7] This sparked what some describe as a digital revolt[8] or "cyber-riot",[9] in which users posted and spread the key on Digg, and throughout the Internet en masse, thereby leading to the Streisand effect. The AACS LA described this situation as an "interesting new twist".[10]

At first, websites and individuals were bullied into censoring the hex number. But as the outrage grew, a trickle turned into a torrent, and the bullying tactics were turned into a joke: their bullying dynamic turned against them.

I'm wondering if the same dynamic could apply to mirroring TPB?

That is, we aren't talking about something as simple as a hex number, but if the issue can be framed as a simple webpage to cut and paste, or I don't know, a bit of javascript, something that can easily be encapsulated, something simple and small that people can easily cut and paste all over the web, in revolt, then we have the making for the same PR failure dynamic as the HD-DVD hex number.

Their own menace on our freedoms can be harnessed to turn public outrage against bullying tactics into a final verdict in the court of public opinion on these IP law douchebags.

Anyway, just a tactic that might be worth considering, in some form or another.

right, and the SEALs who stormed the compound were given orders to capture, only kill if necessary. not to "kill them all

or is it that you like giving bin laden what he wants?

think of the torture and misery for him to be paraded around as a captured criminal. don't you find that resolution superior? if so, then you agree that "kill them all" sucks as an attitude

There conceivably could be an infinite number of "parellel" universes, but there's a real philosophical problem with that. So long as we use the real physicists definitions and not something out of Stargate SG1, those parallels will always remain undetectable. SF writers tell stories about interacting with other universes - physicists define them in ways that show they can't be interacted with to be verified. An untestable idea isn't part of science.

Quite true. And while there is a component of such research that will appeal to the sci-fi or metaphysical crowds, it is still worth considering what such systems would imply. Question: what defines a parallel universe? To me, it is as simple as an ensemble of particles that does not interact with our universe via any of the 4 standard forces with which we are familiar. Once we start there, it can become scientific (ie, testable) again if we ask another simple question: could groups of particles that do not interact at standard temperatures begin interacting at extremely high energies? If the physics were to suggest such a thing, it could be made testable.

There is some precent for such notions - in general, at higher energies, things become more symmetric. A singularity is fully symmetric, and the big bang process resulted in our universe losing its symmetry as it cooled. The 4 major forces (or at least the 3 non-gravity) converge at high energies. It's not inconceivable that other types of symmetry were broken as the universe cooled - whether that symmetry breaking resulted in a preference for matter, or whether it resulted in multiple ensembles of matter that do not interact (ie, universes), remains to be seen.

But like everything else in fundamental physics, creating higher energies should be part of the experiment. And, as you say, it has to be scientific.

Is your country the one where Arold Scharzenegger is from?

Or Croodile Dunee?

if your enemy kills with surprise attacks on civilians, and you respond with surprise attacks on civilians meant to kill, then you and your enemy are the same, and so whomever wins, it makes no difference. no moral progress has been achieved

if your enemy kills with surprise attacks on civilians, and you respond with measured wisdom and forceful lawful action and political agitation, then you are morally superior to your enemy, and if you prevail in the court of public opinion and the resulting political will, then you have achieved moral progress

but killing war merchants and nuclear bomb scientists by surprise in civilian settings only makes you the moral equivalent of war merchants and nuclear bomb scientists

You do realize that by thinking the way you do you are only demonstrating that you are exactly like the people you hate, perhaps worse?

Which exposes how little these tards understand about science, because nanotech is not a specific branch of science, but an amalgamation of many branches of science lumped together by those who don't understand any of them.

He was a user-interaction genius, not necessarily a technical genius. He knew what people would want without them first knowing they wanted it.

In most countries, you are a citizen of that country, and that's that.

That the UK/ Great Britain/ England/ whatever has a crazy patchwork of overlapping national identities, allegiances, and historical intricacies is your fucking problem, not the world's.

Don't expect us to know about your petty nationalistic bullshit, keep track of it, or fucking care.